THE SPENDTHRIFT AND THE SWALLOW
A wild young fellow, who had spent all his father’s money, and had only a cloak left upon his back, when he saw a Swallow flying about before it was time said: “Ah, summer has come! I shall not need my cloak any longer; so I will sell it.” But afterwards a storm came, and, when it was past, he saw the poor Swallow dead on the ground. “Ah, my friend!” said he, “you are lost yourself, and you have ruined me.”
One Swallow does not make a summer.
JACK AND THE BEAN-STALK
I. THE BEANS ARE PLANTED
In the days of King Alfred a poor woman lived in a country village in England. She had an only son, Jack, who was a good-natured, idle boy. She was too easy with him. She never set him at work, and soon there was nothing left them but their cow. Then the mother began to weep and to think that she had brought up her boy very ill.
“Cruel boy!” she said. “You have at last made me a beggar. I have not money enough to buy a bit of bread. We cannot starve. We must sell the cow, and then what shall we do?”